Private students accommodation no longer needed

mrgeeza

Hi there,

I’m writing this on behalf of my sister and parents in the hope I can give them a little hope in a difficult and sad situation.

My sister has just finished her second year of University studying to become a teacher and has been living at privately rented student accommodation In Ormskirk. At the beginning of her previous year of accommodation she was given an offer to save £5 or so a week if she registered for her 3rd year accommodation NOW, offer not to be missed blah blah.

So hoping to save some money for both her and my parents she signed and everything carried on as normal.

As usual her student finance offer has come in massively lower than expected and She has now been left with a dilemma of being unable to afford the flat. 5 weeks before the end of her second year she contacted the accommodation company to advise of her situation and that she no longer needed the accommodation for a 3rd year, they advised they would need to find a suitable replacement for her before releasing her and my parents from the contract. Obviously my parents were requested to be guarantors for last year and although my parents didn't sign or agree to a second year, this is something they can and have rolled over.

The accommodation comes to something like £6000 for 50 weeks but her loan comes nowhere near that leaving my parents going to the bank to find the cash.

Reading the contract it looks water tight but Is there anything we can look into for getting help or maybe even getting this contact cancelled?

***My sister had planned on moving into a friends privately owned house and paying keep to get her through.

***The accommodation is still actively looking for a replacement Tennant.

Hope you wonderful people can help!

Toby

tacpot12

Your sister could also look for a tenant, she could put up her own adverts.
Can she do any work to allow her to keep the accommodation herself? Working over the summer she might be able to earn enough to make the difference between the accommodation she has and staying with friends.

Getting out of the contract isn't likely to be possible unless there is a break clause.

anselld

If this is a new contract I don't think they can "roll over" the guarantor deed to a new tenancy contract. It cannot be a continuation of the same tenancy if there is a two week gap between contracts.

However your sister remains liable.

AnotherJoe

Part time job?

parkrunner

mrgeeza wrote: »

As usual her student finance offer has come in massively lower than expected

I don't understand that bit. Both my daughters when at Uni got exactly what they were expecting, Why hasn't your sister, maybe student finance have made a mistake.

CruisingSaver

You do receive a lower amount of student finance in your final year of university as you're no longer a student once you graduate in the summer.

Sammypooler

The accommodation provider won’t actively be looking for another tenant. Your sister needs to spam everywhere.

What uni?

Larac

The problem with this type of Uni accommodation is that they do vary in the number of weeks that you are contracted for and need to look into the small print and work out what you can afford.

I would suspect that you will be on the hook until the room can be re-let.

silvercar

The accommodation comes to something like £6000 for 50 weeks but her loan comes nowhere near that leaving my parents going to the bank to find the cash.

Unfortunately the government do expect parents to contribute to make up the difference between the student loan and actual living costs.

The other option is for your sister to find a job. Teaching courses can be full on, but there may be the opportunity for private tutoring.

Larac

silvercar wrote: »

Unfortunately the government do expect parents to contribute to make up the difference between the student loan and actual living costs.

The other option is for your sister to find a job. Teaching courses can be full on, but there may be the opportunity for private tutoring.

Household income does need to be very high before you start paying. As my SIL pointed out government does not take account what other financial commitments you have. My daughter is at Uni and it like paying a second mortgage each month!